Not All the Same
by Prodigy99
Summary: When Genma and Ranma's arrival at his home in Japan goes wrong, Soun does the only logical thing to do. He enrolls Akane in boarding school... as a boy. What this has to do with Akane or Ranma, no one knows.


If you are confused and think this story sounds familiar, then you are probably right. This is a revision of my old piece also named 'Not All the Same'. For more about it, READ IT FIRST, then go down to the Author's Note at the bottom! Have fun reading and *hopefully* reviewing to tell me what you think!

* * *

It was all working out as he had… well, hadn't planned. Soun Tendo had successfully signed up his youngest daughter in what would be her new school. But this was no ordinary school… well not for him anyway. After finally getting in contact with Genma Saotome, his long-known friend, it was established that he and his son were to arrive shortly at their dojo here in Japan. However, an unexpected turn of events had befallen them. His wife, Nodoka, had seemingly caught up to them after arriving in Japan from their extended trip to China, katana in hand. His old friend called to inform him of this sudden hindrance in plans a couple of weeks ago.

Apparently, the agreement Genma had made with his wife was to make Ranma, Genma's son, a man among men. When Nodoka had caught up to them she informed her misguided husband and his unwise friend that this included knowledge. After allowing her son to inform her of all the torture, or 'training' as Genma so effortlessly put it, her husband had put him through (somewhere in his explaining, Genma had told him not to worry, for his wife had not found out the worst thing that had happened to he and his boy. This made Soun twitch for a moment but he brushed it off as unimportant), Nodoka decided that it'd be best for her son to commit to his education without the constant hassle of having his father pull him out of school to attempt another 'training journey'.

The easiest way to do so was if she dragged Genma back home while ruefully leaving her son she had just joyfully reintroduced herself to in boarding school. Miyazaki High to be exact. Soun, not letting a difference in schools foil his future plans for the 'Anything Goes Dojo: Next Generation', did the only logical thing to do. Enroll his youngest and most eligible daughter in the same boarding school. He would've included Nabiki, but she denied his offer disdainfully, claiming to have _'good business and fools to coerce bill payment from'_, here in Nerima. Kasumi, being the only of his daughters to have graduated already, was also out of the question.

A good omen must have been bestowed upon him when the oldest Saotome informed him of the news, for it was that same day Akane arrived home well to the point of tears screaming of how much she detested the boys at her school. Soun had been aware of the problem since it started but hadn't been able to do anything for his daughter in the matter. She had become devoted to Martial Arts more than he himself since his wife, the late Kimiko Tendo, had departed. Eventually, he had given up the practice of the art for less time consuming cigars. This being the fact, he couldn't go to the school and threaten the boys. They'd undoubtedly beat all the remaining sense from him. So, this whole boarding school thing was like killing two birds with one stone.

Soun looked over the application, making sure everything was filled in. Date of birth, previous school records, gender…

Soun sighed and filled the small box next to the word male.

It was when he consulted Kasumi about his intentions… leaving the part about Genma and Ranma, that she brought to his attention that boys would still be boys. The boarding school's female uniforms weren't exactly… conservative. She stated that a change of schools didn't mean a change in males. He hated to think of what disgusting things ran through the minds of those young men when they'd look at his daughter. It was practically earth shattering to him. So he discussed options to the willing Kasumi and came up with this one.

He filled in the name of the student that would be attending the school. Originally, when he gotten the papers he immediately filled in Akane's name. Good thing he had accidentally filled it in with pencil. He wiped away the eraser marks from the forms and inked in a new name.

_'What size would you like your uniform?'_

Soun filled in what he guessed Akane's size was and shuffled the papers. Another sigh escaped and he promised to enter the forms into the mail later on that day. He had a feeling that Akane wouldn't _'adore'_ her new uniform as much as she said she did.

* * *

Finally, it was here. Within a week from now, she'd be living her dream at her new boarding school. What was her dream? To finally escape the horrors that were the hentai horde. What was here? Well, her new uniform of course!

Her dad had placed the order in about a week ago and finally, it had arrived. She happily skipped to the table where both Kasumi and her father sat with the package in front of them. Plopping down, Akane excitedly took the package in her hands and swung her long tinted hair over her shoulder. Her eldest sister shot her a reassuring look while Soun, being the emotional man he was, sat nervously tapping his finger on the table. Finally, Akane began tearing into the box with new found excitement.

What she pulled out though, to say the least, was not what she had been expecting. Instead of her multicolored plaid skirt, white shirt, and black vest, she pulled out an all black button down vest with a white shirt and black pants with white hemming. It was… the boys' uniform..?

"Perfect, they sent the wrong order." Akane said. She sighed disappointedly, placing the uniform back into the box.

Seeing her nervous father anticipating Akane's reaction to the truth, Kasumi took the initiative tell her…

"It's not." she said simply.

Akane paused with the uniform still halfway out of the box. She looked to Kasumi with a furrowed brow contemplating whether or not she had heard correctly. When awkward silence had filled the room for more than a minute, she finally decide to intelligently ask, "Huh?"

"It's not the wrong order. That's your uniform." Kasumi repeated.

Akane laughed and dangled to uniform in Kasumi's face. "Sis, could you possibly be going blind? This is a boy's uniform. Last I remember, I'm not one of those perverts."

"Akane, my eyesight is fine. It's just that, when daddy and I enrolled you in this new school… we told them that you were a boy." Kasumi said placing the cup of tea she had been holding down.

"You did _WHAT?!_" Akane screeched letting the uniform drop from her hands. She looked around the room trying to spot hidden cameras or to see if anyone cracked a smile. No hidden cameras. Soun, biting his lip and quietly looking down at his folded hands. Kasumi, with the most serious face she had seen since the death of their mother. This was no joke.

"Think about it Akane," Nabiki added while sauntering into the room, ice cream cone in hand. "A change of schools could change a lot of things but guys never change. Like yesterday, after I told Kuno that you had no interest in him what so ever and he seemed to accept it. But today, he pays me in ice cream cones for descriptive information on how you slept last night."

Kasumi shook her head and Soun grunted in disapproval of his middle daughter's actions… but what could he do? As his mind screeched to him everything that he could do, Akane interrupted his thoughts.

"Daddy, you think this is ridiculous, right? I mean surely you wouldn't want your 'baby girl' around all those perverted guys all the time. You must've not been thinking right when you agreed with Kasumi… Right?"

All eyes were turned on him. Some knowing. Some amused. And some hopeful.

"Akane, I… I was…" Soun slowly began.

"Daddy was the one who suggested it to me." Kasumi finished for him. Akane looked to him again with disbelief but this time, Soun simply nodded in agreement with Kasumi.

"Cheer up Akane. Besides, with the short skirts they wear at that school, the boys over at Furinkan wouldn't hold a match to Miyazaki." Nabiki said, trying to keep herself from grinning at her mentally distraught sister.

Akane couldn't believe it. Her mind couldn't grasp the idea of 'living' around the thing she tried to escape. Perverted boys. She was pretty sure that this had been known by everyone except her for some time now and no one was willing to change their mind. Usually she'd be able to coax Kasumi out of any absurd ideas but the gears in her brain had stopped working since she had received the devastating news. Slowly, she rose from he position at the small table and looked around at the betrayers that was her family. And she took off, up the stairs to her room.

* * *

She knew her eyes were red from crying and that she would have a headache in a few minutes, but Akane knew how much crying usually helped her calm down. She began contemplating how wet her pillow was and how it would probably smell like salty tears for the rest of her life when a soft knock came at her door. Akane turned her head to the window. The sun had began making it's way to the other side of the world already so it must be dinner time.

"Come in." she hoarsely croaked. Not to her surprise, Kasumi peaked around the door with worry etched into her features.

"Are you alright, Akane?" she asked.

"Are you guys serious about this?" Akane asked without answering Kasumi. She turned her head to stare at the sunset that decorated her window.

Kasumi sat down next to her on the bed and gently took Akane by the chin to look into her eyes. "We only want what's best for you, Akane. Nabiki, although a bit blunt, is right. As long as you are the beautiful kindhearted, strong girl you are, the boys will chase you. We can't let you continue to wear yourself out by fighting them off all of the time and this is the best option."

"But why boarding school? Maybe I could pull off going to some school as a boy but, living with those perverts?" Akane asked.

"Akane, as inappropriate as it may seem now, when you arrive there, everyone will think you're a boy and I'm pretty sure you won't have to deal with perverted boys." Kasumi mumbled a 'hopefully' under her breath before continuing. "Besides, as long as you keep living with us, they'll just come to stalk you here. That Kuno boy already makes random appearances here. With you at another school as a boy, perhaps he can't track you."

Akane sighed in defeat and face planted into her tear soaked pillow. She hated this whole idea. What she hated even more was the fact that everyone was right. It was a good idea. But she HATED boys. She hated that they ruined her freshman year in high school. She hated that they had only gotten worse since Kuno declared that for them to date her, they had to defeat her. Unless someone really talented martial artist fell from the sky or came hiking down from training on a mountain, the morning beatings she gave would never end. They were… a persistent , they were going to try and ruin her sophomore year with the same routine. School had just started and she had just turned sixteen. She was not going through another year of this. Even if that meant… going to a boarding school as a boy.

"It'll be alright, Akane. Just come down and eat dinner for now." Kasumi said, braking through her sister's inner turmoil.

Kasumi quietly clicked the door to Akane's room closed, leaving Akane to decide whether she wanted to eat or not. What she didn't know was that Akane wasn't thinking about dinner, but about whether or not her father had some weird ulterior motive for his unusual input to the situation.

* * *

It was decided that for the rest of the week, instead of going to school, Akane would prepare for her arrival at Miyazaki High. Akane was fine with it if it meant not having to forcefully coax a hoard of boys into giving up the fight for her love… for the day.

The lying part wasn't going to be easy though. No doubt, people would question her absence and the only one there to make up an excuse was Nabiki. The girl who would sell her own birthday for a few thousand yen. She would probably tell Yuka and Sayuri, Akane's two best friends, something completely outlandish or disgusting that would keep them away from the Tendo house.

Sure enough, the whole time she spent at home with Kasumi and shopping for boy clothes, she only received pity calls from her friends who gave empathy or sympathy for her condition which varied from flesh eating diseases to one big chicken pox bump that covered her whole body. Nabiki really had a talent for manipulating people into believing the most ridiculous stories. It wasn't until that Friday that she Yuka and Sayuri were allowed over for formal goodbyes. Akane didn't tell them the whole situation, like she was going to a boarding school as a boy, but she had told them that she was transferring and couldn't tell them where and that was enough to keep them bawling for hours that Friday. Eventually, they departed and Akane cried herself to sleep that night.

Finally, Sunday came and everything was ready to go. Her things were packed neatly waiting to leave the Tendo house first thing tomorrow morning. Though, there was one thing left to do. Her hair.

No matter how many times Kasumi tried to tie it back to give her a boyish look, it would always just turn out to be a dead giveaway. So the only thing left to do was to cut it.

After hearing this, Akane was ready to forget everything and stay home for the rest of her life. But after realizing how ridiculous the was being, or was it the obscenities being shouted at her by the ever tactless Nabiki, she decided to go through with it. So now, she sat clinching the kitchen chair for her dear life, squirming and holding back a waterfall of tears. She'd grown her hair out for a reason. If it weren't for the fact that she was aiming for the 'boyish look' or the fact being that she wouldn't be seeing Doctor Tofu, her secret crush, that much anymore, she would have severely hurt anyone who came towards her hair with scissors. But now, Kasumi was looking for the perfect position to begin snipping.

"You ready, Akane?" Kasumi asked softly.

Akane slowly nodded and then stilled her head so Kasumi could begin. She averted her gaze from Nabiki who was overseeing the whole ordeal with an curious look in her eyes. Slowly but surely, small snippets of hair scattered around the floor and before long, a huge clump with her blue ribbon still attached fell in her lap. She bit her lip until it almost bled. That hair meant a lot to her. After all, she had grown it out all her life. Now it was gone.

She was so busy contemplating where she had lost her mind that she hadn't realized that the snipping at the back of her head had stopped.

"Done." Kasumi said with a satisfied smile on her face. Kasumi handed Akane a mirror to review herself. Her hair was cut short but not awkwardly so that when this was over it would grow back normally. Her bangs were kind of exaggerated to shadow her eyes. It was all they could do to hide her girly facial features.

Nabiki nodded approvingly saying, "Not bad. Not bad at all." Then, she cocked her head to the head and smirked and added, "Though you look more like a tomboy than an actual boy."

Akane had to admit, the cut was nice. It did make her look like a boy in some ways but if she were to put on a dress, she could easily be recognized as a girl; a unisex cut. She ignored the rest of the comments Nabiki had to release before and walked passed Kasumi who was now sweeping the hair off of the floor.

"Thank you." she said wistfully to her older sister. Swiftly, she picked up the locks of hair that were still being held together by her ribbon and retreated to her room.

_'At least that's over with.'_ she thought to herself. She put the hair in her desk drawer and proceeded to detest the day ahead of her. Tomorrow would be her first official day of being one of the 'boys'. The things she hated most. But she was doing this to be free from the perverted boys who constantly made her life hell. Hopefully, there would be no cross dressers at this new school. Then she'd be doomed to be chased as a boy AND as a girl. She blew of those silly thoughts and chuckled at herself for being so silly.

Her last thoughts that night once again asked her where EXACTLY she had lost her mind but before her mind could answer the obviously rhetorical question, she was drifting off to sleep. The next morning she wouldn't be Akane Tendo.

She would be Akio Tendo. Sophomore at Miyazaki High Boarding School.

* * *

I'm SOOOO sorry wonderful readers! I deleted this story a while ago when I was EXTREMELY angry. Stupid move, I know. So I was about to repost the old Document when I thought, hey why not just redo it like 'Switched with an Idiot' (another story of mine you may be familiar with). So here's the revision. And personally, I think it's better than the old one! Tell me what you think please and if I should continue.  
REVIEW!!!!!!…. Please :)  
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